Exploring New Jersey's Pine Barrens Forest

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I jumped at Bob Williams' invitation to tour the New Jersey Pine Barrens because New Jersey was the only forested state in the United States I had not visited. For eight days last October, Julia and I rode with Bob in his Ford pickup "office."

Bob is easily the best known forester in the Garden State. He's been managing privately owned pine and white cedar forests for more than 40 years, though in recent years he has turned more of his attention toward encouraging the State of New Jersey to actively manage the Atlantic White Cedar forests it owns.

I met Bob about four years ago at a forestry conference in Dallas, Texas. We were members of a wildfire/risk management panel that also included Phil Aune, a Forest Service retiree and Evergreen Foundation board member; Rob Hughes, Executive Director of the Texas Forestry Association; and Jim Durglo, Board Chairman, Salish-Kootenai College, Pablo, Montana.

Bob and I were also interviewed by a film company producer/director that EarthX hired to conduct a series of interviews focusing on the causes of the West's wildfire pandemic and what might be done to reduce wildfire risks. We got to know one another relatively well in a short time.

Bob emailed me in early 2024 to ask if I was interested in helping him put together a report explaining the history and ecology of Pine Barrens forests - and why they needed to be managed more actively to reduce the risk of wildfires. The result is the January 2025 Evergreen report you see here. Bob is on the cover.

Bob is a New Jersey native and a Rutgers University forestry graduate, with an unending passion for his work. On Day 2 or 3 of our tour, it occurred to me that he didn't need a map to navigate the byzantine Pine Barrens road network - which includes deep-rutted one-lane backroads that date from our nation's founding. It is all committed to memory.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

It is a 15-20 minute drive from Philadelphia International Airport to the Walt Whitman Bridge that crosses the Delaware River and enters New Jersey, not far from McKonkey's Ferry. This is where General George Washington's rag-tag army crossed the Delaware in a snowstorm - on Christmas night, 1776.

120,000 drivers cross the Walt William Bridge every day. Day and night. It never stops. A few more folks than when George was holding down the fort.

Once on the New Jersey side, we drive slowly behind a Lowe's store to examine all that remains of a white cedar stump - behind the dumpsters. It is at least 25 feet tall. Bob tells us it was growing here before our nation was founded. We continue to see this intersection of history and current day throughout our visit.

Next we pass a housing tract. Then a small town appears on our left. It is surrounded by trees. We pass another forest and then some farmland that grows blue berries, cranberries or turf for an NFL team in the Northeast. And on and on the mosaic goes at 70 miles per hour.

For westerners, like Julia and me, it was a jarring experience.

Everything is so close together and all of it is surrounded by trees. They call it the "Garden State" for a reason!

No wonder the looming risk of wildfires has become a major concern for many New Jersey fire departments and citizens. Several people we interviewed asked if we had heard about Black Saturday - April 20, 1963 - the day that 37 major fires broke out in New Jersey.

It took firefighters several days to contain the blazes. Seven people lost their lives and 183,000 acres were burned. Not much by western standards, but huge in the fifth smallest state in the United States. Nothing like it has happened since - so far. Many experienced observers say it will happen again unless Pine Barrens forests are thinned to resemble what Bob Williams does for his clients.

Bob's cell phone seems to have the number for every "Piney" in New Jersey. Pineys are men - mostly older - who own and operate one-man sawmills in their yards or garages - that cut mostly Atlantic White Cedar for customers from coast to coast. You can buy one board or several truckloads. Save for two mills we visited, the rest would easily fit inside the footprint of a three-bedroom house.

Pineys typically cut white cedar shingles or siding, the only species zoning laws will allow on homes listed on the National Register of Historic Homes. There are 1,700 homes listed in New Jersey, 702 in bordering Delaware and more than 3,000 in neighboring Virginia.

Atlantic White Cedar lasts 100 years - sometimes longer - but 5,400 homes needing periodic repair is still a lot of cedar in a state that might have a dozen, one-man cedar mills left.

Here is where it gets really interesting...

New Jersey Cedar mills aren't portable sawmills like out-of-the-box Woodmizers. They are built from scratch using parts inherited from the family business going back many generations. If it isn't inherited or if it is broken - replacement equipment can be found at auctions up and down the Atlantic seaboard - or designed by the hands that know the trade better than anyone.

Cedar mills use old circle saws powered by even older farm tractor engines. They cut very S-L-O-W-L-Y.

Circle saws date from the 1600's and were originally powered by water that turned gears connected to grist mills - that ground grain or turned a blade that cut logs into rough sawn lumber. Some used circular blades and some used very early band saws that had none of the speed of today's band saw mills.

In the hands of men like 73-year-old Spike Wells, a circle saw cuts with amazing accuracy - thank you very much! He likes white cedar for its beauty, strength and cutting ease.

Spike saws by eye. No fancy laser lights for him. He is an artist of the saw, and like the other Pineys we interviewed he cuts to order. Whatever you want. It might take awhile. Spike says, "On a good day, I might cut one log or part of it."

Spike files the individual blades of the saw teeth by hand - as do his fellow Pineys. In a good year, he will cut two or three truckloads of white cedar.

Despite the snail's pace and small footprint of "Piney" mills - New Jersey's anti-forestry mob swears up and down that the last Atlantic White Cedar is about to be cut down. Meanwhile, the Atlantic White Cedar forests are dying - due to the rejection of active regeneration practices - by the same suspects.

For years following congressional creation of the 1.1 million-acre National Pinelands Reserve in 1978 - the partner alliance controlled everything that happened in Pinelands forests. The result was that not much happened except that hardwoods and pine gradually pushed Atlantic White Cedar out of its home range. The result of doing nothing? Atlantic White Cedar is dying in these state-owned forests.

The fate of Atlantic White Cedar is beginning to change, thanks largely to Bob William's influence. None of the 17 people we interviewed during our tour had a negative word to say about Bob. It is clear he brings folks together.

"He's like John the Baptist, the lone voice that never goes away." observed Eric Hinesley, Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Hinesley is a leading authority on the germination and physiology of Atlantic White Cedar and Frasier fir. He laments the loss of civility in our society, the winner-take-all mindset and the inability to find compromise.

"Forestry doesn't get much respect today and it's partly our fault." Hinesley told us. "But Bob carries on with his focus on the practical aspects of caring for and managing Atlantic White Cedar. I hope his message is reaching younger people because we need them to pick up this banner."

We have many to thank for assistance with this edition of Evergreen:
All those we interviewed in person and by phone, Richard Lewis for his spectacular photographs, Bob's wife, Sarae, whose generosity seems to know no bounds, Vin Lang, now President of Pine Creek Forestry. Vin built the Tour Map on Page 8 and wrote the inciteful Pinelands Paradox essay on Page 20.

Bob and Sarae were in Coeur d'Alene last weekend. He spoke at the 23rd annual Foresters Forum at the Coeur d'Alene Resort. Much of what he said is detailed in the attached Evergreen New Jersey report but a few things he said bear repeating.

Among them...

"Forestry is under attack, not just in the West but also in New Jersey. We have 90 years of research that supports the need for thinning and prescribed burning, but it is not happening in state-owned forests because our anti-forestry environmentalists are in control. The only lands that are cared for are the lands I manage for my clients."

Bob's observations have a familiar ring here in the West. New Jersey has lost its Bobwhite quail and ruffed grouse for the same reasons the West is losing its spotted owls: damage done by radical environmentalists who and oppose and then misrepresent active forest management.

We are delighted to report that our Pine Barrens report has already proven to be so popular with readers that we are planning a reprint in the near future with some suggested improvements offered by those we interviewed.

You can read Michael Rains' review below. Mr. Rains lives in Pennsylvania and held several ranking posts in the U.S. Forest Service during his 50-year career. Many of his "Call to Action" essays appear on our website. They are well worth reading.

Thanks again to Bob Williams and everyone who helped make this project such a great success!